


A Defeat

by Infinite_Finals_Week



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Bad stuff happens to the Wiggenstaff brothers, Camping, Gen, Higglemas gets WRECKED, Incredibly Self-Indulgent, The leadup to Hieronymous getting turned into a dog, that's it thats the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24871132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infinite_Finals_Week/pseuds/Infinite_Finals_Week
Summary: The imps just keep coming, and the two of them are already battered from the fights they’ve had in the forest before today. They’re swarmed by ravens and rats and spiders, and no matter how many of his high-level slots they burn through, they can’t stop the onslaught.
Relationships: Hieronymous Wiggenstaff & Higglemas Wiggenstaff
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	A Defeat

Higglemas casts like he’s dying, because the way he figures, if he doesn’t act like he’s about to lose his grip on this mortal coil then soon enough he actually will. It’s good for when he has one battle to fight and he can burn through spell slots like tissue paper, but not as great when he’s not able to get a long rest because his brother insists on heroism above things like, say, life in the material plane as opposed to the astral.

Higglemas casts like he’s dying, dirty and quick and without giving his opponents time to recover. Hieronymus, on the other hand, fights like a hero. He is fair and just and if an adversary who lies bleeding on the ground admits defeat, he is not likely to kill them. Higglemas fights to live where Hieronymus fights to win, and there is something of an overlap between the two, but they are different nonetheless.

At present, Higglemas finds himself standing guard to his brother’s sleeping body. There’s no moon, meaning that his darkvision is the only reason he can see anything right now. He could cast something to make it easier for him to see, but he doesn’t see the-

 _Snap!_ From the forest, there’s the sharp crack of someone stepping on a stick. Higglemas’s head snaps towards the noise, and he quickly casts _Create Bonfire_ in their shallow fire pit, which lights up the area nicely. He sees nothing, but he glances back at his brother and murmurs a modified version of _Tiny Hut_ that lets the wall protect strictly Hieronymus. 

He walks around the edges of the small gap in the forest where they’ve made camp, but as he peers into the darkness the only things he can see are outlines of the closely packed trees. Then there’s another sound, behind him though a little ways off, in the opposite direction of the previous noise. _“Fuck_ ,” He spits. Either there’s multiple things out there, or whatever it is has gotten the idea in its head that it’s a good idea to fuck around with him.

Neither option is a good one. Higglemas walks around the bonfire and taps the wall of the _Tiny Hut_ with his boot, hoping to wake Hieronymus, just in case something should happen. He stands still a few seconds before tapping the wall again, harder this time, and his brother stirs. Neither of them are particularly heavy sleepers- it comes with the adventuring territory. Parties prone to being snuck up on during rests don’t tend to last very long.

Another snapping, closer this time, and Hieronymus jolts awake properly, reaching for his pack and his broadsword. Higglemas digs a stone of protection from his pocket and tosses it in the air, where it floats around his head in lazy circles. “Do you know what that is?” Hieronymus whispers as he stands. Higglemas shakes his head and clutches his silver-coated staff closer to his chest. 

There is a moment of almost complete silence. Higglemas shifts his cloak over his shoulders. Hieronymus reties his bag of beans to his belt. The only sounds are the shuffling of fabric and the crickets. Even their breaths seem to come far too loud, and the way-

A waterfall of imps pours from the surrounding forest, but Hieronymus still manages to get the first move, slashing through an imp with a silver longsword and letting it dissolve into inky black liquid. While Hieronymus stayed on his game, Higglemas did not, struck from behind by an invisible imp and knocked to the ground where he lay prone. 

Hieronymus yanks him back to his feet, only a few imps managing to scratch at his legs, He takes another swing at an imp, and Higglemas casts _Lightning Bolt,_ burning through not only the imps but quite a few trees as well. The two of them work quickly and efficiently, not needing to say anything to each other, just sticking close together. They both sustain injuries as the imps scratch and tear at them, but there is a moment when it feels as though they are winning where Hieronymus burns one of his few spell slots and kills three imps at once, and Higglemas continues to obliterate them with _Magic Missile_ s. 

The imps, though, just keep coming, and the two of them are already a little battered from the various fights they’ve had in the forest before today. They’re swarmed by ravens and rats and spiders, and no matter how many of his high-level slots Higglemas burns through, he can’t stop the onslaught without ceasing to help his brother for at least ten minutes. They continue to fight, their movements becoming almost mechanical as time wears on.

And then, suddenly, it just- stops, and all of the imps retreat. Hieronymus lowers his longsword so the end of it rests on the ground as the two of them, panting, look around for whatever caused the imps to back off. 

Their suspicions are confirmed when out of the trees steps the Demon Prince. He looks like a tiefling, if tieflings had ten eyes and eight arms. His tail, forked on the end in a way that is almost comical, swishes behind him as he steps slowly into vision. “Well,” He says in a voice smooth as silk and thick as honey. “The Wiggenstaff brothers. This is _certainly_ a delightful surprise, but I have to as-,”

Higglemas uses the 9th-level slot he had been saving in case of a similar scenario to cast _Fireball_ , catching the Demon Prince entirely off guard as fire engulfs him. When the flames die down, he is scorched. He stares at the two of them, bloodied and weak but still standing. Then he starts to grow. He gets larger and larger until he is so massive they cannot fully perceive him.

 _And then he picks Higglemas up._ He makes an attempt to grab Hieronymus as well, but in a truly unprecedented show of dexterity he manages to slip out of the way. “Higgs!” Hieronymus shouts after him, preparing to cast _Fireball_ of his own at the Demon Prince. 

There are times, in the later years, when Higglemas will think about how the last thing his brother said as a human that night was his name, and whether he could have stopped what happened if he had only been a little quicker.

The Higglemas of now, however, cannot breathe as the Demon Prince tightens his grip around him, compressing his lungs and cracking his ribs. Two things happen in quick succession. The Demon Prince drops Higglemas, and pure transmutation magic fills the night air, covering everything in a thick brown fog. Hieronymus starts to change. 

Higglemas hits the ground, feels some of the bones in his arm _shatter_ , screams. He shudders and rolls onto his chest where he coughs up a sickening combination of blood and bile. It’s too much, too much pain, too much panic, too much _everything_ , and he rolls over as blue and purple flowers cloud his vision. Then there is nothing. 


End file.
